Ed Miliband named as head of new climate and energy department

Ed Miliband, the younger brother of the foreign secretary David Miliband, is to lead a newly created department of energy and climate in a move that signals a major rethink of the government's environment policy and reflects the rise of climate change to the top of the national and international environment agendas.

With the move of John Hutton, the government's leading advocate of new coal-fired power stations and nuclear power, to the position of defence secretary, the government has paved the way for more integrated energy and environment policy.

Industry and environment departments have long been at odds with each other, leading to political embarrassments and charges that different parts of government were pulling in different directions.

Government insiders said the department was restructured because of the rising political importance of energy prices and efficiency, the need for one department to take the lead in negotiations for a new international climate treaty next year, and to take lead responsibility for delivering a new emissions reduction target, expected to be announced next week. The new department will have control over nearly two thirds of UK carbon emissions which come from energy for electricity and heat. The remainder is from transport and agriculture.

The move was today welcomed by green groups. "For the last 10 years this government has dithered on climate change, offering us inspiring rhetoric but little in the way of real action. Bringing energy and climate together at last reflects the urgency of the threat we face from climate change," said John Sauven, head of Greenpeace.

"Hopefully Ed Miliband will champion efforts to boost renewable energy and energy efficiency, as part of a plan to create the green collar jobs that Britain has so far lost to our European neighbours."

Other groups were quick to welcome the new department. "WWF welcomes the government's decision to create a new climate change and energy department - it shows a clear recognition that the UK's chances of hitting its climate targets are inextricably linked to its energy policies," said David Norman, head of campaigns at WWF.

The first test of Miliband's credibility will be whether he will put a stop to plans for the construction of the UK's first new coal-fired power station in over 30 years at Kingsnorth in Kent. This decision has been delayed for months and is proving a deep embarrassment at cabinet level with Ed Miliband's brother, former environment secretary David, arguing that no unabated coal stations should be built.

A senior government source played down hopes that the new climate and energy secretary would immediately scrap controversial projects such as Kingsnorth and new nuclear power stations, saying: "It's not the take over of one by the other, it's really the integration. We still have to keep the lights on [and] we're anxious about the security implications of being very dependent on gas, so these are really hard issues."

However a source close to Ed Miliband said the two brothers were personally very close: "They are both intellectual leftists from a tradition of thinking about what it means to be on the left, they are both young and the younger generation tend to see the environment as part of the left. Ed, who's very committed to social justice, will try to find a way of making that part of the environment brief, and want to integrate this issue into Labour thinking and give us definition."

But Ed Miliband will also have to decide whether to allow department officials to continue lobbying to change the EU's commitment on renewables. Leaked papers show Britain is exerting strong pressure to remove aviation from renewable energy targets.

Commentators were today waiting to see how the moves would affect the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which has traditionally led the government on climate change.

The independent Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) , which advises government on environment and development, and has often been highly critical of energy policies, said the move was welcome.

"Combining energy and climate change policy under one secretary of state is a welcome move, and one the Sustainable Development Commission has been keen to see for some time. This change will make it far easier to make joined-up decisions in an area which is crucial for the UK and the world," said Rebecca Willis, vice-chair, SDC.

"By making the right sustainable energy choices, we can tackle energy security and climate change together, and we look forward to working with Ed Miliband to this happen," she said.

Business reacted positively: "Both climate change and energy security are vital national interests that need the government's fullest attention and urgent action. Combining them may help identify both synergies and trade-offs, but we must avoid either one becoming subordinate to the other", said Neil Bentley, the director of business environment at the CBI.

International development groups, now pressing strongly for climate change emissions, struck a note of caution. Liz Gallagher, climate change policy researcher at the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, struck a note of caution: "Just setting up a department is not enough. People living in poverty in the developing world are being hit first and hardest by climate change. We hope this means the government will put poor people at the centre of UK climate change policy."

Many renewable energy organisations said that the new department should be a major boost for the sector. "Miliband faces a critical need to stabilise the conventional energy sector and to address the UK's need for firm electricity capacity, while avoiding dangerous gas dependency.

"Sentimental support for renewables is counterproductive to this need, as well as being, paradoxically, harmful to climate change policy", said John Constable, of the Renewable Energy Foundation.

Lord Stern, who authored the government's major report on the economics of climate change in 2006, welcomed the new department: "It shows an understanding of the importance of the subject which requires strong focus and organisation. At the same time it will have to be something that cuts across the whole of government because everything is about reducing emissions, and the consequences."

The reshuffle comes as campaigners claimed that the government's climate change committee is poised to recommend next week that the government set a binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050.